Physics envy
{{Short description|English expression}}
The term physics envy is used to criticize modern writing and research of academics working in areas such as "softer sciences", philosophy, liberal arts, business administration education, humanities, and social sciences.{{cite news|last1=Clarke|first1=Kevin|last2=Primo|first2=David|title=Overcoming 'Physics Envy'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/opinion/sunday/the-social-sciences-physics-envy.html|newspaper=New York Times|date=31 March 2012|accessdate=10 August 2016}}{{cite web|last1=Sokal|first1=Alan|title=Physics envy in psychology: A cautionary tale|url=http://www.physics.nyu.edu/sokal/CCNY_lecture_Nov_19_15.pdf|publisher=New York University|accessdate=10 August 2016}}{{cite journal|last1=Bennis|first1=Warren|last2=O'Toole|first2=James|title=How Business Schools Lost Their Way|url=https://hbr.org/2005/05/how-business-schools-lost-their-way|journal=Harvard Business Review|date=May 2005|accessdate=10 August 2016}} The term argues that writing and working practices in these disciplines have overused confusing jargon and complicated mathematics to seem more 'rigorous' as in heavily mathematics-based natural science subjects like physics.{{cite book|author=Robin Dunbar|title=The Trouble with Science|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5HbvQsET6zIC&pg=PA214|date=7 April 2011|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn=978-0-571-26519-0|pages=214–231}}{{cite web|last1=Smith|first1=Noah|title=Academic B.S. as artificial barriers to entry|url=http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/academic-bs-as-artificial-barriers-to.html|website=Economics, neologisms, and distraction|date=12 December 2015|accessdate=10 August 2016}}
Background
The success of physics in "mathematicizing" itself, particularly since Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica, is generally considered remarkable and often disproportionate compared to other areas of inquiry.For example, Eugene Wigner remarked "The miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve."{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}, while Richard Feynman said "To those who do not know mathematics it is difficult to get across a real feeling as to the beauty, the deepest beauty, of nature ... If you want to learn about nature, to appreciate nature, it is necessary to understand the language that she speaks in."{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} "Physics envy" refers to the envy (perceived or real) of scholars in other disciplines for the mathematical precision of fundamental concepts obtained by physicists. It is an accusation raised against disciplines (typically against social sciences such as economics and psychology) when these academic areas try to express their fundamental concepts in terms of mathematics, which is seen as an unwarranted push for reductionism.
Evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr discusses the issue of the inability to reduce biology to its mathematical basis in his book What Makes Biology Unique?.Mayr (2004) Noam Chomsky discusses the ability and desirability of reduction to its mathematical basis in his article "Mysteries of Nature: How Deeply Hidden."Chomsky (2009) Chomsky contributed extensively to the development of the field of theoretical linguistics, a formal science.
Examples
The social sciences have been accused of possessing an inferiority complex, which has been associated with physics envy. For instance, positivist scientists accept a mistaken image of natural science so it can be applied to the social sciences.{{Cite book|title=Rationality and Cultural Interpretivism: A Critical Assessment of Failed Solutions|last=Yoshida|first=Kei|publisher=Lexington Books|year=2014|isbn=9780739173992|location=Lanham, MD|pages=126}} The phenomenon also exists in business strategy research as demonstrated by historian Alfred Chandler Jr.'s strategy structure model. This framework holds that a firm must evaluate the environment in order to set up its structure that will implement strategies.{{Cite book|title=Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Entrepreneurship|url=https://archive.org/details/handbookqualitat00neer|url-access=limited|last1=Neergaard|first1=Helle|last2=Ulhøi|first2=John P.|publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing|year=2007|isbn=9781843768357|location=Cheltenham, UK|pages=[https://archive.org/details/handbookqualitat00neer/page/n52 37]–38}} Chandler also maintained that there is close connection "between mathematics, physics, and engineering graduates and the systemizing of the business strategy paradigm".
In the field of artificial intelligence (AI), physics envy arises in cases of projects that lack interaction with each other, using only one idea due to the manner by which new hypotheses are tested and discarded in the pursuit of one true intelligence.{{Cite book|title=Artificial General Intelligence|url=https://archive.org/details/artificialgenera00goer|url-access=limited|last1=Goertzel|first1=Ben|last2=Pennachin|first2=Cassio|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|year=2007|isbn=9783540237334|location=Berlin|pages=[https://archive.org/details/artificialgenera00goer/page/n517 2007]}}
See also
Notes
{{reflist}}
References
- {{cite journal
|last=Chomsky |first=N.
|year=2009
|title=The Mysteries of Nature: How Deeply Hidden?
|url=http://www.journalofphilosophy.org/articles/106/106-4.htm
|journal=Journal of Philosophy
|volume=106 |issue= 4 |pages=167–200
|doi=10.5840/jphil2009106416
|url-access=subscription
}}
- Collected in {{cite book |title=Chomsky Notebook |editor1=Jean Bricmont |editor2=Julie Franck |chapter=1. The Mysteries of Nature: How Deeply Hidden? |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-231-14475-9|last1=Chomsky |first1=Noam |publisher=Columbia University Press }}
- {{cite book
|last1=Csikszent |first1=M.
|last2=Hektner |first2=J.M.
|last3=Schmidt |first3=J.A.
|year=2006
|title=Experience Sampling Method: Measuring the Quality of Everyday Life
|publisher=SAGE Publications
|isbn=978-1-4129-4923-1
}}
- {{cite book
|last=Mayr |first=E.
|year=2004
|title=What Makes Biology Unique? Considerations on the Autonomy of a Scientific Discipline
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|isbn=978-0-521-84114-6
}}
- {{cite book
|last=Mirowski | first=P.
|year=1999
|title=More Heat Than Light
|chapter=The Ironies of Physics Envy
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|isbn=0-521-42689-8
}}
- {{cite book
|last=Schabas
|first=M.
|year=1993
|chapter=What's So Wrong with Physics Envy?
|editor=de Marchi, N.
|title=Non-Natural Social Science
|page=[https://archive.org/details/nonnaturalsocial0000unse/page/45 45]
|publisher=Duke University Press
|isbn=0-8223-1410-X
|chapter-url-access=registration
|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/nonnaturalsocial0000unse/page/45
}}
- {{cite book
|last1=Schram
|first1=S.
|last2=Caterino
|first2=B.
|year=2006
|title=Making Political Science Matter: Debating Knowledge, Research, and Method
|publisher=New York University Press
|isbn=978-0-8147-4033-0
|url-access=registration
|url=https://archive.org/details/makingpoliticals0000unse
}}
External links
- [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/opinion/sunday/the-social-sciences-physics-envy.html Overcoming ‘Physics Envy’], op-ed by two political scientists. New York Times, published March 30, 2012
- [https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203430404577094760894401548 Physics Envy: "quants" and financial models], essay and book review of Models Behaving Badly by Emanuel Derman. Review by Burton Malkiel, WSJ, December 14, 2011
- [https://ssrn.com/abstract=1563882] Andrew Lo (MIT Sloan School) and Mark Mueller (MIT Sloan School and MIT Center for Theoretical Physics), "Warning: Physics Envy May be Hazardous to Your Wealth!" published in the Journal of Investment Management, Volume 8, Number 2, Second Quarter 2010 [https://www.joim.com/abstract.asp?IsArticleArchived=1&ArtID=354]